Incompetence on Parade ~ Draft Copy

The Preble Town Board Meeting 1/8/2001

Anne Brennen disenfranchises voters...

First the outrageous statement by Anne Brennen that Song Lake residents only count as one vote to her.

Believe me I've tried to arrange her quotes in an orderly fashion. She tends to bounce around and it is hard to follow.

FH: I asked her to explain her decision to vote against the people at the public hearing.

AB: "There were 35 people at that (public hearing) meeting" "29 were from Song Lake, the people from Song Lake received a pamphlet, if I'm not mistaken, this is what I was told, all about this particular issue..."

"The whole issue was changing from 7 to 5 in my perception..."

"The whole thing was a Flying J issue"

"My thinking on that was we had one vote that was all from one group of people, you all got together, you all made a decision, you all want the seven people. The primary reason for that was so you could continue working on the flying J. I don't care about the Flying J..."

"My reasoning was that to me there was only one vote, out of the 35 people, 2 people did not say anything and the others were all for the two people that were going to be on, think they were going to be on, whether they were going to be replaced I don't know..."

FH: Did you talk to any other people?

AB: "I talk to many people that are for the Flying J, you know your group, just because it's your group, doesn't mean that the people in the town don't want the Flying J, they just have not come to express their feelings."

FH: I see... so that the people that are for the Flying J are the ones you listened to when you decided to change it from 7 to 5?

AB: "No I listened to my conscience, I listened to my conscience."

FH: What about you Pete? (Asking Peter Knapp, Anne then added...)

AB: "As far as I'm concerned it was only one vote, that was the people from the lake who got the pamphlet to come." All 28 of us from the lake are just one vote to Anne, just because we got people to come to the meeting who felt strongly enough to come and express their feelings. She has discounted all of us, dismissed all of us, we don't count in her mind. Our 28 votes did not count at the public hearing but you can bet they will count on Election Day.  Arrogant disregard for the rights of people. She counted all 28 people as just one vote.

Moving on...

Peter Knapp tries to stifle free speech...

FH: What about you Peter?

PK: "I stand by what I said last month... next... question." He said tersely, I don't think he loves me anymore.

FH: I chuckle quietly to myself.

PK: mumble on tape, but I recall him telling me to hurry it up or words to that effect, trying to cut me short, trying to shut me up.

FH: I'll take as much time as I deem necessary.

PK: Talks about putting in time limits about how long people speak, wouldn't be fair... yada yada.

PK: "I think you could have answers to the questions you bring up at other times, I don't think you really need to spend about 1/2 hour of everybody else's time..." At this point I've only spoken for a few minutes, now Anne Brennen is another matter, although it was perhaps 10 minutes total at most.

FH: When would you suggest I do that?

PK: "It's up to you."

FH: "Well if I'm going to get answers from you when..." Peter interrupts me.

PK: "Do you have another question?"

FH: "Well Yeah but my question is..."

PK: Ok

FH: "I'm responding to you wanting me to do this at another time... When would I be able to do this and talk to all of you?"

PK: "You could do it whenever you want to, but do you have another question here now?" He is getting really tense.

FH: "Well, whenever I want to... I have to talk to you... The only times you are here, together, is once a month, at this meeting, and your suggesting I do it at some other time... up to me... but, when would that time be?"

PK: "Right now I'm suggesting that you move along with your other question." He gives up realizing he has totally lost this debate.

FH: "So you're rescinding your previous comment? Ok"

That ended a rather terse exchange between Peter Knapp and I.

I thoroughly enjoyed my discussion with Peter tonight. I have many questions that I would like him to answer. I can hardly wait for nest month.

Don Armstrong screws up the ZBA change... for the THIRD TIME!

The meeting went on for a bit and then something really amazing happened...

Don Armstrong admitted he screwed up... again... for the... (I've lost count... THIRD TIME!) about changing the ZBA from 7 to 5. (He didn't use those words of course, lots of lawyerly words, but he screwed up... big time!) Let's see, he screwed up when he didn't know the law back in September, made the front-page headlines of the Cortland Standard. So you would think he would have read up on that law and become an expert on it. That is what he claims on his letterhead, I believe. Especially since he did this back in '97 when he did the planning board reduction. You would think that, but you would be wrong. He admitted at the meeting that he 'forgot' to recommend that if the board was changed from 7 to 5 then a quorum should also be changed from 4 to 3. He also forgot that it had to be sent down to the Cortland planning board... so this means??? You guessed it! We have to do it all over again for the THIRD time! Boy they sure do spend a lot of time and money firing those two people don't they?

But wait... there's more... They voted to do this (see a copy of the proposal below) but they didn't set a time for the public hearing. It's a new law and it needs a public hearing just like any other town law proposal. Now it is possible that they have to wait to get the ok from the Cortland planning board before setting a date or Don forgot to tell them or they forgot they needed too. It's anybodies guess at this point.

Either way if they get the OK from Cortland then they will set a public hearing, probably at the February meeting and then vote after that at the March meeting. If they don't screw up again. That means it will have taken SEVEN months to do this. Jeeesh!

Now you could show up at the public hearing to express your opinion... unless your one of the 300 or so people from Song Lake, in which case all your votes only counts for one... according to Anne Brennen.

But never fear, after this incredible show of incompetence our town board rehired Armstrong for another year!

Incredible, arrogant, stooopid. Talk about the gang who couldn't shoot straight, these guys would shoot their own feet off, IF they could find the gun... or their feet!

Perhaps this explains why so many citizens leave these meetings shaking their heads. I don't think this group realizes what they look like to the world. Why do they keep doing this stuff?

Frank Hogg

1/8/2001

PS... Please somebody, save us from these imbeciles!